The Secretary of the Presidency for External Relations announced in Horta the intention of the Government of the Azores to establish a Regional Migration Council in 2018.

Rui Bettencourt, who was speaking at the Legislative Assembly during the discussion of the proposals for the Plan and Budget for 2018, underlined that this is an approach that intends to “give more voice to emigration and immigration”, in a community action “more in line with new generations and more focused on the geostrategic and geopolitical value of the Diaspora. ”

On the other hand, and also in the sense of valuing the Diaspora Azoreans, will be celebrated in 2018 the 270th anniversary of the arrival of the Azoreans to Santa Catarina, Brazil, in a year that Florianópolis declared as the “Azorean Year”.

Rui Bettencourt also said that next year the annual meeting of the Casas dos Açores will take place in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, after having been held in Toronto this year.

The Regional Secretary also emphasized that the appreciation of the Azoreans in the Diaspora requires them to ask “what can each Azorean in the world do for the Azores”, stressing that “the activation of the value of each Azorean of the diaspora in the world consciousness”.